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Although I have moaned a bit about my laptop not working, here’s some good news. The parts for my replacement desktop arrived today and are already installed. It’s running like a dream! My son and I use a company called overclockers for most of our hardware; we can certainly recommend them. (It’s a UK company – and I won’t receive commission should you decide to buy from them.)

As there’s still quite a bit of setting up to be done before I transfer completely to the desktop, I thought perhaps my dear readers would like to know which programs I use.

So, to start, here are the first five of my main programs in order of importance. (nb even in UK English the word program is spelt the ‘american’ way if it refers to computer software).

1. Operating system – Vista. I never did use XP so came to it directly from Win2000. I think Vista is an excellent program. Whilst I’d like the Ultimate version, I have other progs to do most of what that offers, so can save my money and make do with Home Basic.

2. Anti-virus. I used to use the free AVG, but I was never really 100% happy with it. I have now bought Eset Security Suite and I think it is more efficient and takes fewer resources than AVG. They offer a 30 day trial ATM (although I think I had 90 days).

3. Roboform. I couldn’t live without Roboform. It’s a little program with a big heart! It stores all of my login details (I have several hundred) and I even have a version which goes onto a USB stick should I need to work on another PC. The thing we all know about passwords is that we shouldn’t use the same one everywhere, nor should we write them down. Makes ’em very difficult to remember. Robo does it all for me – and it has a Master password which means if I should lose the stick, no-one else can get to the data. Click here to go to the website – the trial version lets you save 15 logins.

4. Eudora email. My absolutely favourite email program. used it for years now. Knocks the spots off Outlook (main and Express), and in fact any other program I’ve examined. No longer sold, but still available as a free download from the Eudora site – click here. I keep meaning to have a go at the open source beta version – perhaps I’ll put that on my new pc.

5. MS Office Professional 2007. Yes, I’ve paid for this too – but I got a really good deal. It includes Access as I needed to evaluate it for my day job. The ribbon takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s growing on me. It can be expensive though. I don’t like Open Office, but another alternative is the Office Suite offered by Ashampoo. I have some more of their products as well. Their office suite can even be put on a USB stick and run on another computer without being installed. I just might try it. Ashampoo also have 30 day trials which are really good for assessing whether the program will do what you need it for. Click here to go to their website.